Research into Practice—Linking Be-7 Evidence to Land Management Policy Change for Improved Food Security

The short-term perspective on soil redistribution in the landscape offered by 7 Be is essential to policy makers with responsibility for developing efficient land management strategies to support food and water security. Soil conservation is vital for enhancement of food production on hillslopes of agroecosystems. Mobilisation of eroded soil and transfer downstream leads to siltation of river channels, lakes and reservoirs, which presents a credible threat to river basin ecosystem service provision and water security. In addition, energy security is threatened by siltation behind hydropower dams. The short-term perspective of this cosmogenic radioisotopic tool means it can provide relatively rapid assessment of very recent changes in practice. Because of its agro-environmental behaviour, this short-lived radioisotope a reliable natural isotopic tracer to assess the effectiveness of recent soil conservation strategies (Mabit et al. in Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 99(12), 1799–1807, 2008; Taylor et al. in Water Resour Res 32:467–476, 2013 ).